 Why choose a Holiday with Norwich Scuba?
Holidays are expensive. You save your money all year to get away for a few weeks. You chat to the Travel agents to try to find your ideal holiday; in fact most of us spend our lives in pursuit of the dream destination. You have to choose carefully from brochures, pictures on the net and maybe the recommendation of a friend. Does the Travel Agent come with you to make sure everything goes well? Have they ever even been to your chosen holiday resort and stayed in the same hotel you will be staying in? Probably not.
One of the main benefits of an organised holiday with us is that we accompany you for the duration of your trip. From making sure you have your tickets and helping you get to the airport, to showing you around your resort and arranging evenings of entertainment. Travelling with a group is a fantastic experience and many of our customers have made life long friends on our trips. We have even had a couple that met on a holiday with us and are now happily married!!!! No, they didn’t hold the ceremony underwater. 
On our Holidays we will only ever send our most experienced staff. Unlike other centres that will use a Holiday as a reward for a new member of staff we feel that you as our valued customer need the most experienced staff we have to offer. Dive centres often have different attitudes abroad to ours in the UK and sometimes very different ideas regarding safe diving practices. It can be very easy for an inexperienced instructor to be influenced by peer pressure from the resort instructors and judgment can become clouded, possibly leading to unsafe decisions. By having very experienced instructors with you to oversee your diving activities you can rest assured that your dives will be conducted in a safe and enjoyable manner. If you are new to diving or relatively inexperienced what better way to improve than to spend a week with professional diving instructors giving you advice, tips and keeping you safe all the way. From helping you work out the correct weight to use, to giving you tips on dive table and computer use, even on the spot repairs to your equipment can be made.
Joe and Nicki, our Master Instructors, have, over the last 5 years accompanied over 300 customers to different destinations around the world. Joe spent 4 years working in resorts abroad before returning to work in England to, in his own words “teach diving the way it should be done, safely, in small groups and over plenty of time”. Between them they have logged over 2000 dives in the Mediterranean, 150 in the Caribbean and just under 500 in the Red Sea.
On all our holidays you have the opportunity to complete courses. From your Open Water Diver Course Referral dives to Entry level Trimix Courses. We even have package prices to include your Open Water Course with your holiday. Most are run at discounted rates and are very enjoyable learning experiences. Some of our trips are aimed more towards inexperienced to intermediate level divers where as others are aimed at the more advanced. Then there is the Red Sea, suitable for all levels with depths from 5-18m for the novices and 45-100m for the suitably qualified Tech Divers.
The following is to give you an idea of what goes on when you book your holiday with us. We have used a Red Sea Sharm trip as an example:
Choose your holiday and call into the shop. We will take some information from you such as name, address, contact details, DOB, Credit card details (other payment options are available) and often your Passport number. A deposit is asked for which is normally £100 and a small booking fee of £35. The booking fee goes towards our staff accompanying you on the trip, not bad for an experienced guide for a whole week twenty four hours a day!!! Most of our trips are staffed by two instructors, this costs a little extra but we feel it is worthwhile for our customers. About 8 weeks prior to your holiday we will call you to let you know the balance for the trip is due. About 2 weeks before departure we hold a meeting in a local pub for a few drinks so you can meet the others going on the trip. A normal size for a Sharm trip is about 16 divers. We also discuss some details for the holiday such as how we will be getting to the airport, money to bring, what clothes we recommend for the time of year, diving requirements, courses available and basically anything else you will need to know. We give you your tickets at this point but if you like we will hold them for you until we get to the airport. On the day of departure we all meet at the airport check in desk, unless we have been asked to arrange minibus transport. Flights to Sharm are normally from Gatwick. We like to check in as a group so we can all sit together. All you need do at check in is stand in line and give us your tickets and passports, we will do the rest. Then relax for a while over a couple of drinks in the departure lounge, get to know your fellow travelling companions, have a bite to eat and sort out the odd duty free bargain.
The flight to Sharm is normally 5-6 hours.
On Arrival at Sharm airport things can seem a little unorganised but don’t worry as we will be there to show you where to go and make sure you don’t give away too much of your holiday money to the locals. Many of the Reps know us and will often help us as much as they can to beat the queues. You will need to purchase a stamp for your passport before you go through immigration; this is normally about £12 and can be paid in sterling.
After picking up your luggage and walking out of the airport, our friendly Tony Backhurst rep will be waiting to show us to our air-conditioned coach for a 20 min transfer to the hotel. We will help you to check in at the hotel and sort out any problems that may arise. We like to make sure you are all perfectly happy with your rooms and have everything you need. If you are keen to have a look around we will meet you in reception and take you to a nice relaxed bar for a meal, a drink and the rundown on the next day’s activities. We normally visit the Pirate bar or Camel Bar on the first night as it is only a short walk from the hotel and the food is very good.
Bright and early on day 1 we will all meet for breakfast and then head over to Camel Dive Club which is based at the hotel. You will fill in some paperwork and then we will help you pack your diving kit into boxes ready for the boat. They will ask for £4 for lunch and drinks on the boat for the day. The boats are all very spacious with a lounge, sun decks and diving deck. We normally get a boat to ourselves as we have a very good relationship with Camel Dive Club and are friends with most of the staff there. We will be transferred to the boat in a mini bus with all our kit which will then stay on the boat for the weeks diving. You don’t have to carry anything; it’s all done for you by Camel Staff.
You will be given a safety briefing for the boat and then we will help you to get your kit ready and give you any advice you need. We will do 2 dives a day with the first day being a bit of a check out day to get your weight right and learn the procedures for diving from the boat. We will start at a nice shallow local site with a maximum depth of about 18m. Lunch is served after the first dive and is always exceptional and well worth the money they charge.
After the first days diving we normally rest in the sun by the pool at the hotel before meeting up to go into Naama Bay. This is the main area in Sharm for restaurants and shops and is very pretty at night. There are a few places not to eat at, but loads of good ones to choose. We will normally alternate nights for group meals but this we leave up to you, it’s your holiday.
As the week progresses the dives will get more and more adventurous as we visit the marine parks such as Ras Mohammed and the wreck of the Thistlegorm. Sightings of Dolphin’s and Turtle’s are not uncommon as well as the abundance of brightly coloured hard and soft coral. Have a look at our photo gallery for some shots of the Red Sea marine life.
On the last evening we all go for a meal and a good drink at the Camel bar, famous in the diving world. Then it’s back to the airport the next afternoon for our flight home.
If you are interested in any of our holidays feel free to call into the shop for a chat. As well as the holidays on this page we also have a UK Trips page with short breaks and UK holidays.
We are agents for Regaldive and Tony Backhurst Scuba, so you can book your own holiday with them through us if you wish. Norwich Scuba can also book your diving in both Hurghada, Sharm, Marsa Alam, Dahab and Nuweiba, even if you haven’t booked your holiday with us. It’s always worth popping into the shop for a chat about your holiday requirements, we are always happy to help and our advice is free.
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